Theft! The most common and lucrative instinct of a human being in order to climb up the ladders of the materialistic world which we called society.

Although some may argue that primates aren’t the only species that is known to steal things from one another, species other than homo sapiens do it only to preserve, thrive, and survive in the ecosystem.

But today I am not going to talk about the biological traits and coping mechanisms, rather I would be touching on a much more critical side of analysis regarding how to make a stolen laptop untraceable.

The story of digital devices such as a laptop or a smartphone is quite contrary to how other goods are stolen and then resold for monetary purposes.

Because, unlike commodities, multimedia devices like laptops have a digital footprint that can’t be erased as easily due to ever-increasing security countermeasures by the manufacturers in order to protect their users.

Since data breach is on the rise, getting your hands on a stolen laptop either intentionally or unintentionally can get a little tricky and you can’t just magically make it untraceable.

To get straight to the point, here are some methods and workarounds that may mask your laptop from being tracked, however, let us take a look at how you can be potentially traced back to the original owner.

Disclaimer This article is solely written for educational and recreational purposes. Stealing things doesn’t belong to the rightful owner without paying the agreed sum may result in landing you in prison or jail because it is a felony. Be responsible, and abide by the law, otherwise, I may not be responsible for any harm in any way, shape, or form

Who Can Trace Me?

Here are some of the people or organizations that might be a step ahead of you,

• The Authorities
• The original owner of the laptop
• Anyone with BlackHat IT knowledge 

How Can They Trace Me?

Laptops have a digital footprint that includes but may not be limited to,

• IP Address
• Mac Address
• Tracking applications
• Cloud Tracking
• GPS Tracking

How To Make A Stolen Laptop Untraceable

Here is a couple of workarounds that may deem beneficial.

1. Vpn And Proxies Are Your Friends

The topmost effective technique you can use is to install a Virtual Private Network application such as Hotspot Shield, Nord Vpn, Express Vpn, and IP Vanish. 

These will switch your location from the original place you are working from and divert all your traffic by routing it from completely different countries depending on the server you are connected to.

However, keep in mind some of the Free Virtual Private networks are usually logged by their developers which means at some point your information is actually stored.

So it is in your best interest that you do invest a little bit of money for premium VPN applications, a little price to pay to fade away.

2. Format Your Harddrive

Once you break into a laptop that doesn’t belong to you, there is very little to tell what sort of tracking application is installed by the owner.

Your best bet is to do a complete format of your hard drive and get rid of all the data which will most probably wipe away any monitoring software that might signal your location to the original owner.

Although, you may lose the data during the wipe, on the bright side you have a higher chance of walking away with a laptop and using it like brand new.

3. Reinstall The Operating System

An operating system like Windows 10 or 11 has integrated anti-theft utility such as Find my Device which can alert, provide location as well as lock the laptop if it detects any sort of unauthorized breach.

Simply, Install a new operating system and perform a fresh copy installation of windows so that it won’t ask you any sort of login credentials. 

Moreover, you will also be able to get rid of any sort of GPS tracking utility that may track your whereabouts.

4. Remove Computrace

A Computerrace is a LoJack for a laptop which is made by a company named Absolute software which embeds itself in the BIOS of your laptop.

It is basically a subscription-based anti-theft software that works in conjunction with authorities, the manufacturer of the software, and the owner and automatically flags the laptop if by any chance it is deemed stolen or misplaced.

You can head over to the BIOS menu of your laptop and disable the security option by turning off the Computerrace feature which will permanently remove it for good.

Word of advice

As far as common sense is concerned, laptops tend to work on the basis of projecting signals through the availability of a stable internet connection.

If you actually got your hands on a stolen laptop, it is textbook knowledge not to enable WIFI in order to stay disconnected from the vast world of interwebs that have the capability to track you through the Internet.

But obviously, some online applications may not work such as Google Chrome, steam, etc.

Moreover, if by any chance the stolen laptop is a MacBook, then your chances of getting away and making it untraceable are little to none because you cannot wipe or fiddle around in a MacBook just like you would exploit a windows based laptop to make it untraceable.

Final Afterthought

As mentioned above, keeping security tight is a major concern for everyone, especially corporates and other official personnel that don’t want their data to fall into the wrong hands.

However, when there is hope, there is a way, and there is almost always some form of workaround or exploit that may benefit you in your nefarious deeds. nonetheless, you can consult this article on how to make a stolen laptop untraceable and follow the steps to do it yourself.